Money & Economics

I quit giving a shit about perception or political leanings of sources. Facts and numbers are far more important.

The data seems solid and a number of folks with way more smarts than me rely on them in this and other Republican circles. They are considered right leaning (as is the well known Koch family who started it). Just not the drooling kind.
 
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I'm not in favor of and have made clear my position on illegal immigration.

That said, this new study by the CATO Institute is an eye opener if you allow yourself to think about the effect on our economy of removing 30+ million people, more or less 10% of our population
I think interpreting this info, even if it's correct, takes more than meets the eye. First of all, I took this report as supporting illegal immigration, my bad. It includes both legals and illegals, which begs the question how do they know how many illegals are here or there economic characteristics, when they are undocumented? I have an experience based bias that I believe skews the numbers in favor of the immigrants. In my high-tech job, there were a lot of immigrant engineers who often remained for a few years then went back to their home country. With relatively high paying jobs, they paid a lot of income and social security taxes, didn't have any kids to go to public school, and weren't candidates to ever collect social security and medicare. For taxes paid, they include sales taxes and maybe gas tax (that I didn't see broken out). Well, if the immigrants weren't here, there wouldn't be as much cost for things like parks, public servants, and road maintenance, which I don't think the study took into account. Plus every one of these jobs filled by an immigrant means that a US-born person didn't have that job, helping to skew the US-born vs. immigrant tax numbers in favor of the immigrants. And what about all of the money the immigrants send to their families back home? That has to be a drain on our economy.

(My personal experience was that for job security and salary I had to compete against young immigrant single engineers who were eager to spend lots of hours, including weekends, at the office, while I was trying to also raise a family. The only thing that saved me was experience. Good for the employer in the short run, but what about good for our society?)

This chart shows the immigrant population having higher income and paying more taxes that the average person (whatever that is), while being a smaller percentage of the population. Makes sense to me, seeing all of the single go-getters with high incomes and no wife or kids to add to their share of the population.
Capture.JPG

This one shows the immigrants are more likely to be working age, which is consistent with what I've been saying. Naturally, that group pays more taxes.
Capture1.JPG


This one makes sense. No kids in public school, no free lunches for them, few collecting SS or medicare. (Theoretically, SS and medicare shouldn't be considered a benefit since the participants paid into them ahead of time, but alas, they're counted as government benefits).
capture2.jpg


This one makes sense too with the old age and education benefits.
Capture3.JPG


This one I have a hard time believing, that the immigrant share of population over 65 is about the same as their overall share of population. I just don't see how that can have happened.
Capture4.JPG


Me thinks there's an agenda behind this report.
 
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I think interpreting this info, even if it's correct, takes more than meets the eye. First of all, I took this report as supporting illegal immigration, my bad. It includes both legals and illegals, which begs the question how do they know how many illegals are here or there economic characteristics, when they are undocumented? I have an experience based bias that I believe skews the numbers in favor of the immigrants. In my high-tech job, there were a lot of immigrant engineers who often remained for a few years then went back to their home country. With relatively high paying jobs, they paid a lot of income and social security taxes, didn't have any kids to go to public school, and weren't candidates to ever collect social security and medicare. For taxes paid, they include sales taxes and maybe gas tax (that I didn't see broken out). Well, if the immigrants weren't here, there wouldn't be as much cost for things like parks, public servants, and road maintenance, which I don't think the study took into account. Plus every one of these jobs filled by an immigrant means that a US-born person didn't have that job, helping to skew the US-born vs. immigrant tax numbers in favor of the immigrants. And what about all of the money the immigrants send to their families back home? That has to be a drain on our economy.

(My personal experience was that for job security and salary I had to compete against young immigrant single engineers who were eager to spend lots of hours, including weekends, at the office, while I was trying to also raise a family. The only thing that saved me was experience. Good for the employer in the short run, but what about good for our society?)

This chart shows the immigrant population having higher income and paying more taxes that the average person (whatever that is), while being a smaller percentage of the population. Makes sense to me, seeing all of the single go-getters with high incomes and no wife or kids to add to their share of the population.
View attachment 237543

This one shows the immigrants are more likely to be working age, which is consistent with what I've been saying. Naturally, that group pays more taxes.
View attachment 237544


This one makes sense. No kids in public school, no free lunches for them, few collecting SS or medicare. (Theoretically, SS and medicare shouldn't be considered a benefit since the participants paid into them ahead of time, but alas, they're counted as government benefits).
View attachment 237545


This one makes sense too with the old age and education benefits.
View attachment 237546


This one I have a hard time believing, that the immigrant share of population over 65 is about the same as their overall share of population. I just don't see how that can have happened.
View attachment 237547


Me thinks there's an agenda behind this report.

Excellent points .. Elon Musk is an immigrant, and just his taxes paid already mess up the entire equation ..

"Elon Musk first came to the United States in 1992 to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where he pursued a dual bachelor's degree in physics and economics."
 
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My guess is that if the study showed the opposite we'd have near total 100% acceptance and everyone would be praising it from the rooftops

Is water still wet or is that not in agreement with the Trump administration/MAGA this week?
 
I think interpreting this info, even if it's correct, takes more than meets the eye. First of all, I took this report as supporting illegal immigration, my bad. It includes both legals and illegals, which begs the question how do they know how many illegals are here or there economic characteristics, when they are undocumented? I have an experience based bias that I believe skews the numbers in favor of the immigrants. In my high-tech job, there were a lot of immigrant engineers who often remained for a few years then went back to their home country. With relatively high paying jobs, they paid a lot of income and social security taxes, didn't have any kids to go to public school, and weren't candidates to ever collect social security and medicare. For taxes paid, they include sales taxes and maybe gas tax (that I didn't see broken out). Well, if the immigrants weren't here, there wouldn't be as much cost for things like parks, public servants, and road maintenance, which I don't think the study took into account. Plus every one of these jobs filled by an immigrant means that a US-born person didn't have that job, helping to skew the US-born vs. immigrant tax numbers in favor of the immigrants. And what about all of the money the immigrants send to their families back home? That has to be a drain on our economy.

(My personal experience was that for job security and salary I had to compete against young immigrant single engineers who were eager to spend lots of hours, including weekends, at the office, while I was trying to also raise a family. The only thing that saved me was experience. Good for the employer in the short run, but what about good for our society?)

This chart shows the immigrant population having higher income and paying more taxes that the average person (whatever that is), while being a smaller percentage of the population. Makes sense to me, seeing all of the single go-getters with high incomes and no wife or kids to add to their share of the population.
View attachment 237543

This one shows the immigrants are more likely to be working age, which is consistent with what I've been saying. Naturally, that group pays more taxes.
View attachment 237544


This one makes sense. No kids in public school, no free lunches for them, few collecting SS or medicare. (Theoretically, SS and medicare shouldn't be considered a benefit since the participants paid into them ahead of time, but alas, they're counted as government benefits).
View attachment 237545


This one makes sense too with the old age and education benefits.
View attachment 237546


This one I have a hard time believing, that the immigrant share of population over 65 is about the same as their overall share of population. I just don't see how that can have happened.
View attachment 237547


Me thinks there's an agenda behind this report.


And Agenda like putting out false economic data, like that?
 
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Tough being in Bitcoin





And yet....

Boy oh boy, how it missed it's intended purpose. Arguably, it ended up being the opposite of what it was intended for.

1770225799413.png
 
Gold back over $5000
Silver back over $90
In two trading days
Well, that didn't last long! Still heading down at the moment, but I wouldn't want to predict what it does even 5 minutes from now.
 
Well, that didn't last long! Still heading down at the moment, but I wouldn't want to predict what it does even 5 minutes from now.

Yeah turned into an ugly day right after I posted at market open

I had bought GLD yesterday again and made a tidy profit. held overnight
Then overnight it ran up to well 0ver $5000 and it looked like it was going to be a good day.

Then poof! I dumped it and a mining/minerals ETF I bought in pre-market (XME) which took a nose dive along with just about everything else.

Been holding slow sleepy SCHD for weeks now and it bailed me out to end up with a green day.

Market is very touchy lately. Doesn't feel right...
 
A few firms have massively taken the single family home inventory .. rents up


 
If you’re in the market, or have substantial funds in a 401k that you haven’t looked at in a while, take a peek. Maybe reallocate some to a more conservative MM fund.
OR just keep your eye's closed and hope for the best.*

Two posts that pretty much sum up the current thinking




* Not to be taken as financial advice. I make my market decisions based on what my cat tells me to do.
 
This doesn’t even count the preceding 3 days (Friday 1/30 was as bad or worse)

A $Trillion here a $Trillion there and pretty soon you’re talking real money…